Taboo MA opinion: Martial art humbleness is overrated

"You have to be a role model, MMA guys don't have the martial art aspect."

I disagree, martial means war and sure... I can agree that training in martial arts can strenghten your character and make you more chill and less egotistical. I also think that there is a LOT of forced humbleness. In martial arts we have people who are literally about to do damage to each other and trash talking is bad?

Most of these traditional martial arts had schools brutally slander and challenge each other in the past.
Top examples of cocky fighters: Ali, Mcgregor, Tyson, and Mayweather.

Looking at the UFC, there's actually nothing wrong with being an arrogant prick as long as you can back it up with a K.O. - still trying to work out how to transfer that into everyday life without ending up in prison, though.

Trash talk has become a staple in the UFC because it sells fights. I don’t think it has all that much to do with how fighters relate on a personal basis. Not to say some of them aren’t arrogant pricks, but there is a lot of WWE personality hype going on.

And humility in training is pretty natural if you’re training anywhere that fields decent competitors.

Go to a good boxing gym and you’re not a top ranked boxer, someone will school you. Same for judo, wrestling, BJJ, hell even karate if you’re trying to play by their rule set and not used to it.

And especially in the mma world where you have to be proficient in a lot of skill sets, you’re always going to train with people who school you in one thing or another.

Humility is just being honest with yourself if you want to get better at something.

His heart was visible, and the dismal sack that maketh excrement of what is eaten.

Join Date

Mar 2006

Posts

11,465

9

No matter how good or how well known a fighter is, if they’re talking ****, I see it as a chink in their mental armor. It indicates that they’re operating in a fantasy world.

Everybody can be beaten. When you’ve reached a high level in combat sports, any time you make a single little mistake (and sometimes when you don’t) that could be your ass. I always have more respect for the mental game of fighters who recognize that they’re not invincible but go out anyway and function the way they’ve trained. Lay it on the line without being too wrapped up in the outcome. Randy Couture said once that you should make peace with the worst possible outcome. That’s samurai ****.

No matter how good or how well known a fighter is, if they’re talking ****, I see it as a chink in their mental armor. It indicates that they’re operating in a fantasy world.

Everybody can be beaten. When you’ve reached a high level in combat sports, any time you make a single little mistake (and sometimes when you don’t) that could be your ass. I always have more respect for the mental game of fighters who recognize that they’re not invincible but go out anyway and function the way they’ve trained. Lay it on the line without being too wrapped up in the outcome. Randy Couture said once that you should make peace with the worst possible outcome. That’s samurai ****.

In short.....Be like Fedor.

Sometimes I think it's not just about arrogance, it's fighters trying to get inside their opponent's head and psych them out.

No matter how good or how well known a fighter is, if they’re talking ****, I see it as a chink in their mental armor. It indicates that they’re operating in a fantasy world.

Everybody can be beaten. When you’ve reached a high level in combat sports, any time you make a single little mistake (and sometimes when you don’t) that could be your ass. I always have more respect for the mental game of fighters who recognize that they’re not invincible but go out anyway and function the way they’ve trained. Lay it on the line without being too wrapped up in the outcome. Randy Couture said once that you should make peace with the worst possible outcome. That’s samurai ****.

In short.....Be like Fedor.

I used to agree with this- philisophically I agree with this- but look at Conor Mcgregor. He seems to have pretty much mastered the trash talking regime and has even admitted he just does it to sell fights, and unfortunately, it works. I don’t personally like it, but you can’t argue it’s not a sound financial decision in a career where being able to sell fights is as important as being able to win them.

I think there’s just a large percentage of the fan base that likes to buy into the emotional drama that trash talking creates.

Hell, a large portion of the county voted for Donald Trump, who did nothing but talk **** without ever outlining a single policy.

Riding hype trains are practically an American past time nowadays.

Again, I don’t agree with it. I personally prefer respectful fighters, but it is what it is.

This is because modern MMA fandom is worse than ever and the UFC's actively pursuing WWE-type promotion for short-term gain and long-term detriment to MMA as an actual sport as opposed to a spectacle for chromosome deficient mongoretards.

McGregor's trashtalking works well for him as it's likely what caused Aldo to rush into his left hand. It was also suggested to be a major reason of why Ali beat Foreman - constantly disparaging the silent giant before the fight and then leaning into the ropes and mocking Foreman during the fight, causing the much more powerful boxer to exhaust himself throwing constant power shots with little effect.

Only works if your opponent is goadable, however. McGregor's failed hilariously against Diaz, only causing McGregor himself to be too self-confident while doing nothing to alter the fighting style of the already perpetually pissed-off Diaz.

I’d be hesitant to say Mcgregor’s trash talk had any effect- success or failure- in either of their fights.

In the first fight Diaz was a last minute replacement, they had a few back and forths leading up to the fight, but there wasn’t much time for a build up.

Mcgregor lost that fight by trying to box with Diaz who is just a better boxer, and likely tougher. He was already done by the time it hit the ground.

The big difference in the second fight was Mcgregor’s game planning. Especially his use of low kicks, which Diaz- who tends to fight off his front leg- is particularly vulnerable too.

What struck me as odd about their second fight was that Diaz showed great leg defense in his previous fight with Michael Johnson, and everyone seemed to pretty much know what Mcgregor’s plan was going to be...

Maybe Nate was just over confident after their first fight.

Anyway, my overall point is that I don’t think the trash talk had anything to do with anything outside of selling tickets.

And the ufc has always appealed to that kind of crowd. At this point the ‘just bleed’ meme is over a decade old. And people used to boo every time a fight hit the ground, now there seems to be more appreciation for the ground game than there used to.